Christine Tsai, CEO and Founding Partner @ 500 Startups
Christine Tsai is the CEO and Founding Partner of 500 Startups. 500 Startups is a global venture capital firm with over $600M in capital under management and 2400+ portfolio companies across 77 countries around the world. Notable investments include Credit Karma, Talkdesk, Canva, Grab, Twilio, and many others. Before founding 500 Startups, Christine spent time as a Product Marketing Manager at Google and grew up in the Bay Area.
In this episode we spoke with Christine about the following:
How she built up the muscle for taking risks in her career despite being raised to seek security
Embracing her unique style as an introverted leader who’s also a ferocious “mama bear”
Differences in cultural / business norms between the United States and many of the global markets 500 invests and operates in
You can listen to her below or wherever else you get to your podcasts.
The nuances of conducting business in the US vs. Asian markets
Americans are sometimes seen as transactional and are perceived to not necessarily care about long-term relationships. There are many examples of when American companies expand globally, and it doesn’t work, and they retreat. People tend to then think that those companies were not truly invested in those regions.
There are some examples where being transactional is positive. There can be a benefit in being very efficient and in some ways, you just get things done. But at times, there’s no concern for the people in those regions. When it comes to a professional culture, you can see it when you look at founders who raise money in Silicon Valley. You meet someone for the first time, you pitch your company, and you’re good. It may not work like that all around the world. They may want to get to know you and want to build a relationship with you before doing business with you.
What Christine has had to unlearn over time
Knowing that even if I’m not the one doing the work, and hence delegating, that is okay. Especially at this point in my career and the position, I sit in. It’s doing a disservice to my team because they may think I’m not trusting them or don’t think they can take on more responsibility.
It’s very typical for an Asian American to be hands-on, learn to do things yourself, and be independent. But again, it comes at the cost of potentially training others and developing talent. This makes me reflect on the risks and rewards of taking certain actions.
In some ways, if you look back at my immigrant parents, it’s a big risk to come to a new country. But growing up, they didn’t necessarily encourage me to take risks, start a company, and go move to a foreign country. They instead told me I have to have security and not take many risks. They didn’t want to stand out too much, and they just wanted the best for their kids. Because of this, I have had to unlearn and build up the muscle of taking risks. Certainly, in VC and startups, it’s all about taking risks. I think those are all things you don’t learn growing up, especially for most Asian Americans.
The benefits of being an introverted founder
When I left Google to start 500, and then a few years later became CEO, I had to embrace that I’m not going to be your classical extroverted leader. That’s just not me. I really want to show that being an introvert can lead to people running companies successfully. In fact, I have a lot of advantages, and I really lean into them versus trying to change who I was. It’s still something I think about to this day. It’s always a challenge because the expectation by society is to be extroverted and loud. I’d like to make it more inclusive for people to be themselves.
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Until next time,
Jay and Angie